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The exploration of space and its resources has always been an ancient dream of humanity. This ambition has recently surfaced with private companies funded by billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, who have developed reusable rockets. This technology does not only make viable special exploration, but it also encourages other activities that exist today only in fiction, such as mineral resource exploration of the asteroids. There are now start-ups and government agencies dedicated to proving that this market is attractive.
This is a small group: today, a dozen companies are interested in the mining of asteroids – rocky or metallic bodies come from clashes between planets. One of them is the English company Asteroid Mining Corporation, created in 2016. With seven employees, she is about to receive her first round of investments of about 3 million dollars. . "We want to start the race for asteroids, it will be the race to the gold of the 21st century," he said State Mitch Scullion, founder and CEO of the newcomer
study the segment argues that it has high potential. The Ryugu asteroid, which contains iron and cobalt, could be worth about $ 82 billion, according to Asterank, a database badyzing, among other factors, the composition of stones. The US Space Agency has estimated that if all the known asteroids of the solar system could be exploited and their wealth distributed among the inhabitants of the planet, each person would receive 100 billion dollars of nothing.
Indeed, asteroids are made of metals that are likely to become rare on Earth in the next century. This is the case of platinum group elements, for example, which may disappear 60 years from now. It is not necessary that a reserve be completely exhausted for a given material to become scarce – it is enough that its exploitation becomes economically unsustainable.
In addition to its potential to serve important industries such as petrochemicals and electronics, the extraction of asteroids can also pave the way for spatial expansion. Many asteroids and comets have water that can turn their hydrogen into fuel for rocket. In this way, these big rocks can have a role similar to that of the service stations.
"It will be much cheaper to get raw material to build a structure on Mars, for example if it can be obtained from asteroids in the Asteroid Belt, because of their proximity", said Caesio Leandro Dal Ri Barbosa, astronomer and professor at the FEI University Center, "but it will not be easy to get there." Of course, this requires a level of sophistication much higher than the one we currently have " Asteroid Mining Corporation is working on the creation and marketing of asteroids, "said Asteroid Mining Corp., an expert in the asteroid field. databases listing the most attractive asteroids on the planet. "Our initial source of revenue will be data – our satellite is studying the composition of 5,000 near-Earth asteroids to determine the right candidates," says Scullion.
There are also companies that rely on the development of robots and exploration equipment, such as Kleos Space in Luxembourg and the Japanese. – and in the search for space flights at lower cost, which can cost between $ 500 and $ 1 billion – Deep Space said in 2012 that he was trying to reduce this cost to $ 25 million.
Photo: Reproduction / Statistics
Ancient Pbadion The fascination of humans with the rocks of space is not new. In 1886, Dom Pedro II ordered to study the Bendegó meteorite of Bahia in Rio de Janeiro. Decades later, in the world of comics, Kryptonite, the fictional mineral of planet Krypton that weakens Superman, has gained worldwide fame.
The fascination is now beginning to materialize as a potential enterprise. Some countries have already been interested in this market. In 2015, Barack Obama created legislation allowing the exploration of asteroids.
Luxembourg has not only enacted a law similar to that of the United States, but it is creating incentives for startups in the segment – in 2016, $ 223 million was spent on financing them. If the projects of these startups materialize, perhaps the prophecy of the astrophysicist Neil deGrbade Tyson will come true: "The world's first billionaire will be the one who exploits the metallic content of asteroids."
What is the best asteroid?
1.
Asteroid clbades called Asteroids close to the Earth (NEA) and The potentially dangerous asteroids (PHA) are the most useful. NEAs have a distance of less than 195 million kilometers from Earth. PLHIV are less than 7.5 million kilometers away – the furthest point from Earth and Mars is 401 million km. There are approximately 19,000 objects in these two categories. Currently, only four are "minerals" – the closest is 1 million kilometers.
2. Composition
The interest is great for precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum. Platinum group metals – such as palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium – are used in metal alloys and are used in the petrochemical industry and in equipment electric and electronic. Elements such as phosphorus, zinc, tin and lead are also interested.
3. Cost
The costs of a space mission being very high, the profit must be attractive. For example, the asteroid SG10 2001 has an estimated value of $ 3 billion, but a mission to reach it will cost about $ 2.5 billion.
